the move

this was our rear view for 24 hours. we drove straight from chicago to melbourne, blew a tire along the way, and rolled in at 4 am. i will never drive that again...
oh, and i dropped the couch on my leg, just when i thought this move couldn't be any more painful. now we're here, and it's worth it. maybe i'll post some pictures of our place with furniture later!

getting her first tooth

when matt and i first saw ella on monday, she gave us a huge smile - she is the cutest, happpiest baby. oh, and she's going to be a ladybug for halloween. with tights and everything. it gives me a few ideas for the costume party....

holly's shower

one of the best things about the weekend was spending time with holly. she and scott will be married in less than four weeks, so it was fun to have a snatch of time with her...

no matter what...

dad is always up for driving the boat. oh, and he's really good at teaching people to ski. it's a little embarrassing at the time putting on skis, life vests, and being 'pulled' by a rope while still in the boat, but it works! and i am living proof, even if i don't 'prove it' very often! (i stayed warm and dry in the boat this weekend)

two can play this game...

for the other side of this picture, go to www.photomark2006.blogspot.com
mark and i made the first trip to ohio for fall break my freshman year at wheaton. we packed up the old 4 runner, popped in a mixed cd of collective soul, goo goo dolls, and blessed union of souls and spent the weekend on the lake, skiiing, eating amazing food, and seeing family. and six years later, it's very similar. well, i guess the soundtrack would be a little different.

happy to be back at the lake...

beach days and sweet 16

the weather is finally bearable. around 70 during the day, so obviously we've been spending a lot of time at the beach. i love the beach in the fall/winter - very few crowds, great sunsets, and a lot of animals around.

this weekend we went to a school play for one of our youth kids - he was definitely the star of the show. they kept making announcements about cupcakes that would be for sale at intermission, so the entire first act, all i could think about was cupcakes. at intermission, matt and i kept saying that we hoped the cupcakes were only a quarter so we could get 4....(we only had a dollar in cash). imagine our horror when we got to the cupcake stand and they were two dollars! per cupcake! i couldn't believe it - and there was a line snaking around the building to buy these! cupcakes. mob mentality at work again. i wonder if anyone stopped to ask themselves, 'why am i paying 2 dollars for 1 cupcake??' actually, who am i kidding? if we would have had 2 bucks, i would have downed that overpriced cupcake so fast....

saturday, we went to a sweet 16 birthday party for one of our youth girls. it had all the elements of a great birthday party - shaving cream fights, pizza and candy, red rover, and a ton of group games i haven't played for years. i'll admit, i spent the shaving cream fight sitting in our car with the doors locked, but it was a blast.

yesterday, went on a picnic after church by the intercoastal waterway. just when we started eating, a group of dolphins started playing in the water 50 yards out. there was even a baby fin next to one of them. it was all i could do not to jump in with them, and live out my fantasy of being a dolphin trainer...

we watched all 22 episodes!

emily and sumanth at screen gems studio

em and i on a wilmington beach